Louis encountered the table tennis ball for the first time when he was only 6 years old.
His mother took him to kids’ table tennis classes in a club. After little Louis won the championship in his age group in a Xiamen competition, he joined the municipal table tennis team. A year and a half later, he entered the Fujian provincial team and became a professional athlete at the age of 9.
At that time, with “a strong desire to play balls”, he intensified his drill by significantly increasing the daily training time to 8-10 hours. Having a strong support from his family and unwavering resolve, Louis kept his chin up despite not knowing whether he would be able to follow his career path down the track. With unremitting efforts, he survived all of the knockout matches by tackling challenges at various levels, and finally he advanced to the national team by virtue of his excellent results of being ranked eighth in the South Division and thirteenth nationwide in the Junior Championships.
The 14-year-old Louis was one of the youngest players in the national team. In the ping pong superpower--China, getting the opportunity to stand in the training hall of the national team was an acknowledgement of a player’s great efforts and sports talent. Louis believed that “hard work and perseverance are the basis of being an athlete. The understanding of table tennis enables you to create personal breakthroughs constantly.”
The ball is round in shape, and top players would calculate its rotation angles, match it with the best footwork and strength, read opponents’ mind, and stabilize their own emotions. “I would see if I can hit the ball the moment when it leaves the racket. Players’ movements and footwork are not fixed, but experience gives you a sense of the hitting rate.”
At the age of 17, considering his personal development in the future, Louis chose to come to Australia, where his sister was living, over other countries like Japan, the United States, Canada, and Austria. From then on, he moved into the next stage of his career and life. With a world ranking of 44th, Louis was brought into Australia as a special talent and started to represent NSW in domestic and international competitions. In just over a year, he has travelled to countries such as Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium and Thailand, representing Australia in high-level table tennis opens.
Speaking of local people’s views on table tennis, Louis says that many local people like playing it, but due to an incomplete training, selection and retirement guarantee mechanism, few people take table tennis as a career even though there are a large number of amateurs. Currently, less than 200,000 people in Australia keep playing table tennis, a non-mainstream sport in the country. However, as the number of players continuously grows, Louis is filled with confidence in the development of the local table tennis industry.
Louis, in his 20s, has a clear plan. He opened his own table tennis club in Rhodes this year, which can guarantee enough training area. He also delivers coaching programs, aiming to introduce more young blood to the local table tennis circle. Up to now, he has coached nearly 50 students. It’s worth mentioning that the NSW state team under the leadership of the coach Louis won the Under 13 Boys competition in the recently closed 2019 National Junior Championships. Louis has been enjoying and balancing his dual roles as a professional player and coach. As a player, he still has a very long way ahead, while as a coach he just kicked off. With the help of Louis, this spinning table tennis ball will successfully take root, grow and thrive in the fertile soil of Australia.
